The sustainable builder BaleHaus recently constructed several energy-efficient homes, which were built using a prefabricated straw insulation system made by the company ModCell. BaleHaus is actually made up of 3 firms working together, namely Cadan Developments, ModCell, and White Design. So far the group has built several different sized homes, from townhouses to apartments, which goes to show just how versatile the straw building system can be.

The Missoula, Montana bases company Montainer has begun selling the first prefabricated model of the shipping container homes they offer. The Nomad 192, as the home is called, can be purchased though their website, while the company plans to expand their offerings in 2015 with several other models, which can already be preordered.

The 3D printing of homes and other buildings definitely has a place in the future of architecture as soon as the technology is scaled up to be able to produce large structures. We might be one step closer to that with the powder-based cement method of 3D printing, which was developed by researchers at UC Berkeley, headed by Associate Professor of Architecture Ronald Rael.

The architecture studio Reform from Poland is planning to build a very unique home in the woods. They’re calling the project Izabelin House, and a large portion of its exterior façade will be covered by mirrors, which sort of makes it look as though the upper floor of the home is just floating in midair in the forest.

The prototype of a promising biobattery has recently been developed by researchers at the German Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Energy and Safety Technology. The battery they developed is actually a highly efficient biogas plant which is capable of transforming different types of organic raw materials, such as straw, scrap wood and sludge into different energy sources like electricity, purified gas and engine oil.